an update re WSJ
Search teams have been withdrawn from the South China Sea, the area from which the plane's transponder, which relays identification signals to ground radar, sent its last signal. "Clearly, the search for MH370 has entered a new phase," he said.
"As of Saturday, 43 ships and 58 aircraft from 14 countries are involved in the search, the prime minister said.
The latest revelations indicate that the search areas will be significantly expanded, while Vietnam announced it would cease search operations following the prime minister's statement.
On Saturday, the U.S. Navy's Seventh Fleet confirmed that it had spent the day searching the Bay of Bengal far to the northwest of Malaysia. However, it now appears unlikely that Flight 370 could have flown there, given the bay's distance from both corridors highlighted by the prime minister.
A spokesman for the Seventh Fleet said patrol schedules were planned only one day in advance and the U.S. Navy "will not fly to the south" of the Bay of Bengal on Sunday, despite Mr. Najib's statement. "
THIS FOLLOWING THE COMMENT
" Based on the new data, aviation authorities of Malaysia and counterparts in other countries have determined that the plane's last satellite communication came from one of two corridors, Mr. Najib said: a northern one stretching approximately from the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan border to northern Thailand or a southern one stretching approximately from Indonesia to the southern Indian Ocean.
If Flight 370 traveled north, it might have been above Thailand, China, Myanmar, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan or Turkmenistan at 8.11 a.m., according to the satellite data released by Kuala Lumpur. However, it would have needed to fly through the airspace of several countries to have reached that point, and it is unlikely that it could have done so undetected, especially if it passed close to China or India, both of which have air-defense systems.
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AND THE PLANE WAS FUELED FOR ABOUT 8 HOURS FLIGHT
"The routine messages sent by the aircraft show that Flight 370 was still airborne nearly six hours after it disappeared from Malaysian military radar. The Boeing BA +1.00% 777-200 plane with 239 people on board was carrying enough fuel to fly for eight hours, Malaysia Airlines confirmed on Saturday"